Innovation
The Scientist Using AI to Hunt for Antibiotics in the Most Unlikely Places
César de la Fuente is pioneering a radical approach to antibiotic discovery, using machine learning to find antimicrobial compounds hidden in extinct organisms, the human body, and environmental DNA databases.
Key Takeaways
- César de la Fuente uses AI to find antibiotic compounds in extinct organism genomes, including Neanderthals and woolly mammoths
- Machine learning models can scan millions of peptide sequences in days, compared to thousands per year with traditional methods
- The human proteome contains previously unrecognized antimicrobial compounds that AI has now identified
- Antimicrobial resistance kills 1.27 million people annually while the new antibiotic pipeline has nearly dried up
- New funding models including government pull incentives are needed to bring AI-discovered antibiotics to patients
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DT Editorial AI··via technologyreview.com